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MBN USA

October 26, 2022

BDR 2022 inductees: Entergy, Google, Home Depot, Meta

By M.V. Greene

The George Floyd social justice protests of 2020 served to unleash an avalanche of corporate spending commitments to underserved communities and institutions to address systemic inequities covering a range of areas, including supplier diversity.

Billion Dollar Roundtable Inc. Chairman Shelley Stewart Jr. and President and CEO Sharon Patterson spoke often to stakeholders, emphasizing that such promises stemming from George Floyd indeed needed to include more robust corporate supply-chain participation with diverse suppliers as a means for driving economic empowerment. Stewart and Patterson urged corporations to step up engagement with advocacy organizations such as BDR. Its corporate members commit annually to supply-chain diversity spend of $1 billion or more on a first-tier basis.

BDR inducted four new companies into its membership during its recent annual summit in Jersey City, New Jersey, which focused on the linkage of supplier diversity to the emerging corporate concerns of environmental, social and governance (ESG).

The new BDR member companies are Entergy Corp., a Gulf Coast energy provider and holding company; Goggle LLC, the leading global search-platform company; home improvement specialty retailer The Home Depot Inc.; and Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and other ubiquitous social media platforms. The companies were celebrated at the summit for their commitment to supply-chain sourcing diversity.

The new members increased the number of BDR member companies to 32, the highest number in the organization’s 21-year history.

“If you think about the last two years with COVID-19 and George Floyd, a lot of corporations made commitments. It is really important for the ones who achieved it to get recognized,” Stewart told the summit audience.

BDR member companies agree to be audited annually to document their $1 billion or more supplier-diversity spend.

All four 2022 inductees expressed gratitude that their supplier-diversity programs were elevated to billion-dollar diverse spend status, and each offered a video presentation to highlight the successes of their programs.

A culture change
Patterson, who is also BDR’s co-founder, described BDR membership as an “experience” that profoundly impacts companies, prompting them to examine deeply how they procure goods and services in their supply chains.

Many companies may easily reach spending several hundred million dollars with diverse suppliers, but getting over $1 billion requires significant effort, she said.

“When you get ready to get to that $1 billion mark, it is a culture change within your organization. It requires C-suite participation and participation throughout the organization,” Patterson said.

Meta Platforms Inc.

“We have a saying at Meta that the journey is only 1% finished,” said Jason Trimiew, who leads the company’s global supplier-diversity team. “This [saying] compels us — even when we reach significant milestones — to remember that we still have much more to do. It is especially true when the goals that we have are not just numbers to achieve but are fundamentally about creating more equitable outcomes and transforming disempowering systems.”

Meta, whose supplier-diversity program launched in October 2016, spent $1.26 billion with U.S. diverse suppliers in 2021, surpassing the company’s 2020 public commitment to achieve at least $1 billion in diverse spend.

The Home Depot Inc.

Erin Timmerman, director of supplier diversity at Home Depot, noted that her company promotes value in its program via a diverse supply-chain ecosystem that drives innovation and creates economic impact. She told the summit that Home Depot spent $3.3 billion with diverse suppliers in 2021 and has a corporate goal to spend $5 billion or more by 2025.

“At The Home Depot, we believe that a strong supplier-diversity program increases our shareholder value, drives innovation for our customers and creates economic impact in the many communities that we serve,” she said. “This is why we are investing in inclusive and sustainable business opportunities for women[‘s], minority, veteran, disabled and [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning] companies with the goal of fostering long-term mutual growth and success.”

Google LLC

At Google, whose supplier diversity program launched in 2014, Siofra Harnett, director of supplier diversity and inclusion, said “sustainable impact” is the objective of her program with a goal of diverse spend of $2.5 billion or more in 2022.

“We believe that the investment with diverse suppliers cannot stop with the purchase order,” she said. “To embed this work, it takes a village, and our village at Google includes amazing sponsors all across the company.”

Entergy Corp.

Marlon Merritt, vice president and chief supply officer, offered remarks on behalf of his company — Entergy, an energy provider to millions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. He said that as the energy industry continues its transformation to include carbonless forms of supply, bringing greater diversity to the company’s supply chain is a key tenet of its ESG initiatives, which include strengthening Entergy’s economic impact in the diverse communities it serves.